1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to transporting liquids, and more particularly, to devices and methods for evacuating liquids.
2. Description of the Related Art
At various, often unpredictable, times, liquids undesirably accumulate in a given location, for any of a number of different reasons. Regardless of the reason, typically there is a strong desire, if not an absolute need, to remove such liquids from the given location, typically as quickly and efficiently as possible.
For example, a homeowner may have to deal with a flooded basement or pools of standing water in a yard, after a heavy rain or overflowing of a river. In an industrial setting, a worker may encounter a large spill of a chemical solution, which, if not quickly removed, may pose a risk to the safety of the worker and their colleagues. If a water pipe bursts, for example in a residential-, commercial-, or industrial-structure, hundreds, if not thousands, of gallons of water may flood the particular building in a relatively short period of time. Also, in the case of a structural fire, the given structure may be flooded with thousands of gallons of water, in the process of putting out the fire.
Thankfully, a given homeowner, building-maintenance worker, or disaster-recovery worker typically is not faced with these kinds of situations on a daily basis. However, when such a situation does occur, a person needs to remove the liquid immediately. Failure to do so often results in serious (additional) damage to the particular structure or grounds involved, and dramatically increases the possibility for injury and illness to people in or around the particular site. Examples of risks to people include electrical shock, slipping and falling, and exposure to mold, bacteria, and other pathogens.
In an effort to address this situation, people have invented wet/dry vacuum cleaners, as well as wet/dry vacuum cleaners with built-in pumps. Because of the wet/dry vacuum cleaner's relative portability and relatively low purchase-cost, many building-maintenance services, and even homeowners, own such devices. However, when large quantities of liquid need to be moved quickly, these users find such vacuums to be relatively ineffective. For example, such devices have an extremely limited capacity. Therefore, when the vacuum cleaner's liquid-reservoir has filled, the user must remove the device from the site, empty the liquid, and bring the vacuum cleaner back to the site. Because of this “batch process”, liquid removal is relatively slow, resulting in significant damage to the particular flood site and heightened risk to people at the site.
As mentioned briefly above, inventors also have created, at least conceptually, three wet/dry vacuums which house a liquid pump. These inventions are described in Brown, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,104, Chayer U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,722, and Allen U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,455. However, as shown and described, these devices are quite cumbersome, being both large and heavy. Also, based on the descriptions provided in these patents, the purchase-price for these devices would be quite high. Given the low probability of frequent flood-recovery situations at a single site, most building-maintenance services and property owners would be unwilling to pay to have such a device on the premises—particularly when one or more relatively mobile, low-cost, conventional wet/dry vacuum cleaners already are “on site”.
The end-result is that, although many building-maintenance workers and property owners have a tool which may be effective in a minor liquid-evacuation situation, these workers and owners are poorly equipped for any significant flood-recovery or liquid evacuation.